Warriors can't afford slow start in NCAA game

For the third time in four years, East Stroudsburg University's men's basketball team will play in the NCAA Division II Tournament.

SEAN SANBEG

For the third time in four years, East Stroudsburg University's men's basketball team will play in the NCAA Division II Tournament.

No. 6 ESU will take on No. 3 IUP at West Liberty at noon Saturday.

The Warriors look to keep their season alive with an NCAA tourney win — a feat ESU hasn't accomplished since a first-round 99-98 overtime victory against Slippery Rock in 1990.

The Warriors gathered around the television in head coach Jeff Wilson's home to watch the selection show. A loud chorus of cheers erupted when they learned they made the tournament. However, the Warriors are trying to keep the excitement to a minimum.

"We all should be excited, but that shouldn't be a thing," said sophomore point guard Matt Tobin. "We're both in the tournament, so both teams are going to be excited. It doesn't really matter whether it's home, away or a neutral site. We're both going to be enthusiastic."

ESU defeated the newly crowned PSAC Champion IUP 57-55 in a regular season game on Jan. 4 at Koehler Fieldhouse. As the Warriors prepare to face them again, the seniors relish the chance to play in another game.

"The only way I can keep this going is winning," said senior forward Duane Johnson. "I do not want my career to end."

Coming off their PSAC semifinal loss to Slippery Rock, ESU looks to get off to a quicker start this Saturday.

"We're going back to see what things (IUP) tried to do against us," said Wilson. "And we're looking at things we need to clean up coming out of the Slippery Rock game — some things that they did against us that were successful that we might see again.

"Slippery Rock put a 6-8 kid on (guard) Whis Grant, a look that he hasn't really seen a lot of. We didn't do a great job of moving the ball, so we've been trying to work on getting some more ball movement this week. And Terrance King got in some foul trouble which hurt us, so all of those things combined enabled us to get off to a slow start.

"IUP wants to play a little more than half court. They're big. They're physical. We want to press them and get out in transition. Even though the score was low, it was a high-tempo game. We turned them over 23 times, and that has been a key to our success. This week there's going to be a huge emphasis on getting into our pressure game."

The Warriors will look to speed things up against IUP.

"We definitely want to get them off of their element," Grant said. "We like to speed up our competition and get points off of their turnovers. We get points in transition, fast."

"If we press them, they have to speed up," Johnson said. "We need to get back to what we do. We want to get the tempo to where we want it. If we can press them, we'll be good."

Regardless of Saturday's outcome, Johnson and his fellow seniors have put together a remarkable four-year career at ESU.

"Committed," Wilson called his players. "Five guys that are going to graduate were the supplemental parts of a very good team when they came in back in 2010. In a day and age when sometimes young men are hesitant to become leaders, these guys like to lead. They're committed to trying to make the program as good as it can be. They get along extremely well and they like to compete together."

Despite the excitement of the postseason and the pressure of midterms, the Warriors appear ready for Saturday.

"IUP's been shooting very well lately," said Tobin. "We can't really help if they get it down low, but we just need to play our style of game and hope everything works out."

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